Suijin

ARENA Suijin RC2

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RubbishyUser

L7: Fancy Member
Feb 17, 2013
414
488
Could we have a koth version at some point? This map is large enough to be one and is so god damn beautiful that it's almost a pity that I don't get to look at it for 5 minutes at a time. Plus of course, if you ever want it to be played in the wider community you'll be much more successful with a koth version. :glare:
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
Here's my statement on a koth version from a few pages ago:

I probably will make a koth version, it's been highly requested...I'm not doing it however until arena is in at least late beta. I imagine I will have to make drastic changes to make it koth and I'm not going to have to parallel maps running that I have to port changes across.
 

BEEFE

L1: Registered
Dec 28, 2013
7
2
A relatively minor detailing concern, but I think it'd be important to lay down some spytech props eventually, to give some inkling of why the mercs are fighting over this beautiful place. A bank of computers in some building, barrels of waste under the control point, a radar dish or missile in one of the pillars out back, anything to tie it in with the rest of TF2. It's a gorgeous map and a ton of fun to play on, but the tone is a bit jarring.
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
No. This map will not have spytech. Spytech is not a requirement, and no one ever said "I'm not going to play this map because I feel like I'm fighting over nothing because there's no spytech." I remember when people were surprised to find spytech on degroot keep because it didn't fit in with the theme, and too this day many people I know don't like the fact that it's there.
 

BEEFE

L1: Registered
Dec 28, 2013
7
2
You're right, I was being over-specific there and there's plenty of maps that work perfectly fine without it specifically. Still, Viaduct and Sawmill have obvious industrial objectives, and Harvest has a ghost, for instance. I focused on spytech specifically because it's a cheap way to show there's something valuable there. I do think it serves an important purpose in DeGroot Keep (as far as anything about DeGroot Keep is important) in saying "This takes place at the same time as the other maps; they're fighting with swords and not guns because of Reasons, probably very stupid ones."

And yeah, the map's fun enough that I'd want to keep playing it even with dev textures, so tone isn't a dealbreaker. Still, right now it's so somber that I have a hard time reconciling it with the rest of TF2, and I feel like getting the tone in the right place would take it from "excellent custom map" to "Valve quality." After all, this is a game where the characters are employed by a guy who forgot to pay them because he was too busy wrestling a yeti, so even if the setting itself isn't zany it should be a place where zany things happening wouldn't be out of place. Of course it's possible to take things too far, so even though it's a fun map a lot of people regard koth_lolcano as a gimmick rather than a real map, so it's clearly possible for improper tone to hurt a map.

So basically I think it should have something suggesting military or industrial value, and something that suggests that rocket jumping soldiers and air-guritaring ax murderers aren't as out of place as they currently feel in a Japanese shrine. Still, you're the one actually putting in the work to make the thing so if you still disagree I won't push it further. In any case I'll do what I can spread the word about Suijin, especially since it's hit a relatively stable state.
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
Coming soon to a thread near you

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Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
No, actually they're extinguish triggers. I figured running through a raging torrent of splashing water would do that.
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
aa
Sep 5, 2010
6,394
5,571
No, actually they're extinguish triggers. I figured running through a raging torrent of splashing water would do that.

Well, running through a raging torrent of splash water would also push you around a bit...

... but your idea is probably a bit better for arena :p
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
Ignore the Christmas lights and the skip brushes in the 3d skybox. I've also boosted the ambient lighting for next compile.

But here you go, beta is close!

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This map is probably also going to wreck low-end computers. I'm sorry, I'll try to optimise it as best as I can and the roofs have agressive LoDing (you can see it, actually) but still, it'll hurt. I'm sorry.
 
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Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Pity there's no way to disable the Christmas lights effect during Christmas events for taking screenshots.
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
After some agressive occludering I've managed to improve FPS in some areas. Some are really hard to optimise, such as standing on the roof of the main bridge (you can pretty much see everything) so I'm not really sure how much I can do.

Anyway, b2 will be out tonight with a bunch of fixes and a slightly improved 3d sky.

EDIT:

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b2 is now out!


b2:
Thousands of bugfixes;
- fixed nodraw surfaces
- fixed weird clipping in a few places
- fixed light bleeds
- fixed waterfall particles
- fixed various zfighting issues
- brighened some areas
- fixed lightmap and displacement seams
- fixed places you can get stuck
- fixed magical katanas
- fixed some weird clipping on the terraced path.
Extended fence on the cliff to make it clear that it's clipped
Some optimisation, a litle improvement in FPS (up to 40% in some areas), but probably the best I can do.
 
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woodx

L1: Registered
Dec 29, 2012
44
22
yeah.. you are like god of mapping

also i'm surprised by how fast you have done this, super fast :)
 

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
Considering everyone was so surprised that their fps dropped a bit when playing this despite my many warnings, I guess I'll have to say it again.

This map is optimised to the fullest extent the source engine allows. IF your fps is not at a playable level on this map, then buy a PC made in the last 5 years or don't play the map. It's not going to get any better. All the models have full LoD's so force a lower level detail model if your fps matters that much. I repeat This map can not be optimised better
 
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